Trial Options and Pricing
 

I would think many webmasters agree trials are a good option for 90% of the sites out there.

But what trial to offer the surfer? 1 day? 2 day? 3 day?

A trial is a trial so all is good as the surfer can join cheaply to see what's inside without forking out an entire month in this day and age. If he likes what he sees then he'll hopefully stay.

The main idea here is to increase sales overall and also increase member conversions. Conversions is where we all make more money.

So what do you like as an option for a trial? What do your surfers seems to like? What works best for you as far as making sales?

Discuss....

Personally I like revshare no trial unless the site wants to also give me more then the revshare on the trial.

But if there is a trial then two days seems about right try the site out and get hooked.

Forgetting about the trial length for a minute, one thing to consider is European surfer traffic and how they'll be paying for the trial.

As I understand it there are some limits to *how small* an amount can be paid. And I think it converts to about that $4.95 number. I'll see if I can find some source info for this later on unless someone else can confirm or deny it before I get to it.

Personally I'd say $1/day as a trial -- and revshare on the trial. Bigger chance to hook someone on a trial if you ask me.

I picked 1 day. A surfer should be able to decide if they like the site within 24 hours. BTW, I alway pick revshare when given a choice.

Yeah, I'll go with a day assuming the content isn't shit. If it's good stuff, surfer should be ready to sign up, and three days there's a greater chance of losing them.

I prefer a $29.95 30 day trial.

I'm the one who picked 4.95 for 3 day trial.

I hate seeing a revshare sale of 50 cents or even 1.00. I work too hard to get that sale and the low payout is so depressing. Especially if it doesnt convert to an upgrade or a rebill. When I see the 1.00 sale I think to myself "this sux"


IMO If someone pays 5 bucks they are more likely to upgrade or rebill the 29.95.

As long as the site has an honest and informative free tour and had quality content with regular updates I would go for revshare no trial. They are the only ones worth promoting IMO.

If you set a 1 day trial it is easy to forget to cancel and then you might feel cheated that it rebilled automatically before you did cancel it. This surfer could be lost forever to adult sites, or certainly to that paysite and maybe the referring site too as he won't trust it any more.

If I had to choose a trial I would take the longest as it seems fairest to the surfer (if it has automatic rebill at trial end).

|headbang|

Ok so many like having no trials. That's good, I'm with you there as I too hate the $1 sales I make with some revshare sites.

Otherwise it's a toss up between $1 and $4.95 so far...

I like the $4.9X for 3 days ... especially since that makes the standard $29.9X for 30 days look better (about $1 per day vs $5 for 3 days LOL) and if they stay the 3 days they usually think the monthly ain't a bad deal ... especially when it's broken down as "just under $1 per day" compared to a cup of coffee.

I live in Britain which is part of Europe, there is no minimum for credit card payments (but there is a $50 minimum for cheques at most British banks). Some credit cards charge for foreign currency payments, and since this is usually a fixed charge not a percentage it will reduce the benefits of a very low price sale, however it tends to push people into full membership joins instead of trial only, which is a good thing.

However Europe is not a federation, each country is free to set it's own rules and I can only speak for Britain (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland). But I would guess that most of the sales will be to English Speaking countries as most European countries have liberal porn laws, so will have their own sites in their own language that their countrymen will be joining instead of English Language sites.

But the other big country you have to worry about is Australia, they speak English and they have strict anti-porn laws that mean most Australians will be looking abroad for their porn. So you probably want to find out if Australians have a minimum foreign spend on their cards.

I haven't been able to find a source so far for my comments about there being some minimum amount that can be paid in Europe. And I may have misremembered about exactly how the payments which had some limit were made. It may not have been credit cards, maybe SMS billing or something else more popular in Europe than it is here. But I haven't found a source either way so if anyone else finds something related to minimum payment amounts allowed I'd be very interested to know what the hell I was talking about.

:)

I went with the longer trial mainly because it has the better payouts on PPS.

On the revshare side I generally go with the $29.95 no-trial for solo-girl/single sites.

For places with multi-pass options I generally go with a trial because the volume of site contents tend to convert/recur.

I think you need more days. Because a lot of times if it's just a day trial the person buying will cancel that day. I always hope that the buffer of more than one day they just forget and then they say fuck it and just end up with a full month. That's my logic about it anyway.

I personally don't like trials on revshare, but I went with the 2 day trial $2.95 - I think it's inexpensive enough that they are OK with the initial sign up and perhaps long enough for them to recur for the month as well, just to get a bit more of it.

That's the way I look at it too. Plus with a higher trial price the odds of them staying longer are better.

Simon, are you under the impression that Europe is a country? It is not, it is a continent made up of lots of countries. You may be thinking of the European Union (EU), or if you are old enough to remember the old name the European Economic Union (EEC). This is not a country as such, it is just a group of countries who have free trade between them (i.e few border controls between member countries). They also work together to fight protectionism from non member countries (e.g. if America banned the import of European steel the member countries may block the import of some American goods to try and force America to change it's law). Although there are a few laws governing all EU countries, these are only things intended to facilitate trade between member countries (e.g. one country cannot subsidise it's own industries to make their goods cheaper than other member countries in an attempt to flood other member countries with their goods), there are no common agreements about things like banking minimums, that will vary from country to country. You cannot lump "Europe" as one country - that would be like assuming that the USA has the same banking laws as Canada, Mexico, Portugal, Brazil, etc. and that one central American Parliament dictated the rules for the USA and other American countries.

The point I made is valid for the predominantly English speaking countries (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) except the Republic Of Ireland. Each of the other countries will have it's own rules, laws, and banking traditions. However, as I said in my last post, they probably account of almost none (or more likely none) of your sales, as they would mostly use their own county's porn sites.

No, I wasn't then and still am not under the impression that "Europe" is one big country. Even though many in Europe seem to think so, we're not all dumb Americans over here. :)

I'll post my source for what I mentioned earlier if I ever find it again. In the meantime it's good to know that, for example, a one-dollar trial can indeed be paid for without a problem in much of the world. I still prefer the $4.95 trials or no trial if on revshare, for all the reasons already mentioned, but the $1 trials have their place with some traffic.

I do a mixture of trials - from free to $4.95 for 3 days, plus about half straight revshare with no trials, depending on the program. Some programs offer a trial, but then will charge the surfer $29.95 or 34.95 a month with no reduction! If that same buyer had opted for no trial, they would be charged $5 less per month.

Be fair to the surfers, be fair to the webmasters. Give us the console, cross sell, and link to a page option and we all be happy.

I Wasn't inferring that you are "all dumb Americans" (well not all of you anyway |couch| ).
Sorry if I cause offence. I posted the reply because you keep referring to whatever it is you heard as being the situation in "Europe" when it will probably be totally different in each country, there is no "Europe wide" law/rule on the matter.

|headbang|

Damn - I agreed with Useless.....................

Pagan, I don't think you should have used the "dripping sarcasm tag" because by saying "There are policies the lump all of the European countries into one basket" you are kind of demonstrating that you are still not enlightened! |banghead|

BULLSHIT!

I lived in Europe for almost half my life and there are thousands of treaties, policies and laws that lump Europe into one basket. Just like there are thousands that lump The Americas into one basket. Pull your head out of your ass and smell the flowers dipshit.

Pagan dear,

No one put it better than Ron White

Where in Europe did you live? Was it a small dark cellar with no contact with the outside world except a TV that only showed a right wing propaganda channel? There is a lot of anti-EU feeling across most (probably all) member countries, and the more right wing of these (e.g. the "England for the English - keep the foreign johnnies out" brigade) put out a lot of false propaganda, for example "Europe is going to ban the traditional British sausage", but basically these are lies pumped about for political reasons. I guess when in Europe you spent too much time with the conspiracy theorists.

In your previous post you say There are policies the lump all of the European countries into one basket - EU and non-EU" There is NOT A SINGLE LAW THAT COVERS BOTH EU AND NON EU COUNTRIES except where the law a blindingly obvious one (e.g. it is probably illegal to murder someone in all European countries).

WRT the EU alone (which is less than half of Europe): As I said in my previous post, there are a few laws common to all countries, but these are all either health and safety (such as minimum standards for baby seats) or to do with trade between other EU members (for example one member country cannot stop the import of legal goods from another member country). But these are mostly minor things and have no effect on non-European countries. They defiantly have no impact on the matters this thread is about.

However with regard to your views on European porn laws: I am guessing your time in Europe was in the mid 1990s or earlier when porn laws were a lot stronger than they are now (a hell of a lot stronger in Britain), things have changed in the past 15 years.

When you say "Your English-speaking countries are actually parts of the United Kingdom, which is ONE government and which will have one set of laws." YES that was the entire point of my first post!!! |huh

In answer to "How many nude beaches do you guys have in the UK?", quite a few (I have twice ended up walking the dog on a nudist beach without realising it because they weren't fenced off from the rest of the beach and I missed the warning notices). However since you are unlikely to get arrested for sunbathing naked on any beach, there is not as much call for them as there is elsewhere (British law on nudity is a little weird in that it is only illegal if someone objects, if no one objects to you sunbathing naked, the police are powerless to act).

Leck mich am Arsch Schlapschwanz

So - you're telling me that the United Kingdom has no treaties or trade agreements with any other European countries?

Your a fucking idiot.

For God's sake read the fucking post before commenting on it.

I am happy to debate things with people who disagree with me, but it is a bit bloody pointless if you are too thick to understand what I am saying.

Fuck you.

You know that is what I like about this board, the way some members can post such intelligent and erudite comments to back up their arguments. |yawn|

Considering I'm Dutch, I'm pretty qualified to speak on this kind of stuff and you are wrong. The anti-EU feeling exists mostly in England and Denmark. The rest of the EU member nations had issues with a European Constitution.

And this propaganda is effective, how? Why would they need propaganda if there's a big anti-EU feeling anyway? Doesn't the need for anti-EU propaganda sort of defeat that earlier statement of yours saying there's anti-EU feelings in most member states?


You're wrong there I'm afraid, there are in fact laws that govern even non-European Union countries as well as EU member states. There's a reason if you speed in, say, the UK, you will get your ticket delivered
at home eventually.

I can't speak for all Europe (which is why I said "probably" and not "definitely", but it is not just England and Denmark, there is a lot of anti EU feeling in ROI, France, and Spain for certain, and I think also in Italy (although I only have one person's word for Italy). There even anti EU feeling in some countries who are still waiting to join!

I never said it was effective or that there was a need for it, just that it existed. You cannot argue that because something is pointless it does not exist.

If you re-read my post I kind of made the point that most of the spreaders of this kind of stuff are the more right wing groups, you know, the sort of people who will argue violently that black people are inferior to white people. These people are not known for sensible propaganda with a valid point. Unfortunately many newspapers see these as good stories and publish them as true even when they know they are not. Troll through the online archives of some of tabloid type newspapers from the countries I mentioned above to see the sort of things I mean.

Name one law that all European countries co-operate on. They cannot even all agree to extradite murderers and paedophiles to the country they committed the crime in. You mention the speeding fine, exactly which non EU countries will arrest one of it's own citizens for speeding in Britain? I don't even know a EU country that will do this.

Every single media entity puts its own spin on things and applies filters to ensure that even the most informed of us remain ill-informed on some things. Important events are swept under the rug in many areas of the US unless there is a local impact (Example, I was in Helsinki in the fall of 1988 when Estonia declared its right to fly its own flag and speak its own language. It was the lead story on all the newscasts there and the only thing the Finns were talking about. Because the news sources were saying that American television was one of the factors in the overthrow, I wanted to see how it was playing out in the states. I bought Time, Newsweek, and US News when they hit the news stands, thinking there would be a story on it. Nothing.. nothing at all, not even a peep even in the following weeks. My cousins were not surprised as it had no direct bearing on the US at all.

I think it is much the same in other countries. Media pushes the stories it thinks will sell and keep people coming back for more, but doesn't do a good job of educating us. As to countries agreeing on one law? Pffft... never happen. It doesn't even happen here in the states! Honestly, I cannot even name one law that ALL 50 states agree on. I know it is also a tough job in Canada.

I think Simon made a very valid point here. IF we as webmasters push the $1 trial and it ends up either depriving visitors OR driving up costs to the merchants, then we need to rethink the picture. A $4.95 trial makes great sense. It is currently less than an hour's wage (minimum), so most can afford it. It gives the visitors a chance to taste what waits for them if they convert, and it is enough that it won't drive processing charges up. Even if there isn't a rule against it, does it make good sense? If it did, the free and $1 trials should have been going through the roof, shouldn't they?

Looking at the poll numbers, we are kind of all bunched. I would suggest letting the webmaster decide between the trials. If the $1 trial sells better for a webmaster give them that tool. A program can adjust its payouts accordingly. (Silvercash currently offers that type of choice). I just don't like seeing the visitor penalized when they go to pay for the subscription.

I only want to say this: "No matter what country you're in or state, there is too many laws trying to form your life to be equal to others!" One of the the worst danish laws or rules is the 50+% tax that we have to pay----------yes I know it's horrendous sounds like stealing doesn't it, but of cause the government want to make it sound like we get so many features from them by paying those taxes like super hospitals and welfare, super schoolsystems etc. but when you look at it none of that works...hospitals can't get doctors due to them being overworked which also results in more errors and huge waiting lists for almost everything, cancer patients can wait several weeks before they get to get the right scans and examinations and then in the end treatment. The schools can't get well educated teachers due to it being a low payed job stuffed with too many papers to fill in for every student. The welfare system does not work either, too many people take advantage of it so they do not have to work, so for years they can sit on their ass and do nothing, which then results in people really in need of welfare can't get it without having fall crying on their knees begging for it and filling in all kinds of papers etc. etc. .... but of cause a lot of other laws/rules are worse than that....look around and see how your governtment is trying to box you in to fit in the society....I am so tired of it and i hate the bloody politicians lying all the time and cashing in on what they can no matter what their so called "policies" are! The system only works to a certain point and we're the only ones to change it! - that was a bit off track....but this shit really makes me angry....

this thread has gone waaaaay offtopic ...

Blame me Ana - Everyone know it's always my fault ;-)

as for the original topic - I'm not planning on offering trials anytime soon.

Sales have sucked so bad lately I recently went against my better judgement and past experiences thinking something may have changed.

I just tested a 2.95 trial.

I normally run with two options:
A no trial/29.95 monthly recurring and a 69.95 90 day non-recurring option.

I have noticed in the past several months I am seeing way less 69.95 transactions. This made me think I need to lower prices and prompted me to test a 2.95 trial rebilling @ 19.95 just to see what would happen.

My conclusion: The test was a failure. Surfers are broke, and spoiled.

Thanks for the input :)

i'm giving the 2.95 trial a go again, but this time recurring at 19.95

i like what i'm seeing so far as increased signups but i will keep you posted on the rebill conversions

i don't like trials and i don't like being too cheap, but in these depressed times my logic keeps telling me cheaper is better for long term $

we'll see